Bacon Beer! Yes!

Since beginning this blog, I’ve been looking around for bacon beer. Of course, right? I’ve found so many different alcohol/bacon combinations, it seemed logical that somewhere out there someone had put bacon and beer together. But alas, my past searches have only led me to a German beer called Rauchbier, which means “smoked beer.” Most Americans who try it feel there is a distinct essence of bacon about it, due to the fact that the malted barley is dried over an open flame, rather than in a kiln. In centuries past, this was a more common practice, making smokey beer less rare than it is today. As it is, only a handful of breweries throughout the world practice this method now, and I have yet to taste one of these unique libations.

However, I am now very happy to report that I’ve finally found what I’ve been searching for. It’s Bacon Beer, and it can only be found (as far as I know) at the Front Street Ale House on the San Juan Islands in the beautiful state of Washington. I found a single review of this beer at Beer Advocate. It’s an American Pale Ale that’s infused with lean bacon, and got an overall rating of a “B”. Good enough for me, sign me up!

Is there anyone out there who’s tried either the smoked or bacon beer? If so, please tell us about it. If not, I’ve been looking for an excuse to go back to Washington…and I think I just found it.

12 Comments

justinho on August 13, 2009 at 6:41 am

There are several locations in New York City that sell Schlenferia Rauchbier. If you want to go to the source, you’ll have to visit the picturesque town of Bamberg in Germany, which is where all of the Rauchbier is brewed….

Thought I’d mention that Brewmaster Garrett Oliver is supposedly brewing a real bacon beer as his new brewmaster reserve project. Very limited supply that may not even be released to the public. But interesting.

Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver has heard the call of drunken gluttons and is developing a beer made with a special malt smoked in the same room with bacon made by “the legendary” Allan Benton. Oliver tells the Times, “It’s almost terrifying how much the malt smells like bacon.” His ingenious plan involves infusing a brown ale with the flavor of Benton’s bacon fat through a technique known as “fat washing.” The bacon-fat-infused ale is aged in bourbon barrels, and one historic day (t.b.d.) he will blend it with the bacon-smoked malt. And Oliver promises this to a world hushed with anticipation: “Either this will be the most amazingly disgusting thing you’ve ever tasted in your life. Or I shall rule the earth.”

I had Garrett’s Brooklyn Brewery Bacon Beer at a pairing dinner last week (only 20 cases were made) – actual bacon-infused beer (fatwashed) blended with smoked beer (the malt was smoked at the same time as the bacon for extra flavor). The taste? Amazing!

My wife and I have been brewing beer at home for the last year. I’ve decided to try really small batches of Bacon beer to see how it turns out. If I get a good batch I’m going to increase the volume to 5 gallons. I hope it works, I’m excited about it! I have ideas on how to try it a couple different ways. Could be good, or it could be really really bad, we’ll see.

In addition to Brooklyn’s bacon beer (I’m going to butcher the speller–pun intended–but it’s called Reinschwinesgebot, a play on the Bavarian Purity Law titled Reinheinsgebot and the German word for pig/swine. Or maybe Garrett Oliver just made that into a good joke.)

Anyway, Uncommon Brewers in Santa Cruz, Cali. made a Bacon Brown ale which I’ve tried. It’s murky and vaguely bacony. Truth be told, the Schlenkerla Rauchbier from Bamburg is way baconier!

The closest I have come, around here in South Texas, is a Summer Seasonal beer from Shiner…appropriately named Shiner Smokehouse. It is a Mesquite smoked Helles Style beer, and oddly enough has a “bacony” flavor (especially after-taste). Very good, in my opinion.

O’Fallon Brewery in O’Fallon Missouri makes a smoked porter where the smoky flavor is more savory than woodsy. It made me think I was drinking bacon beer.

On the topic of brewing your own, I would think a bourbon/bacon tincture would be something good to add to a porter or a stout. After all, breweries age some stouts/porters in bourbon barrels. Not having a spare bourbon barrel at home, I would think that the tincture would be a good solution.

I’ve long said that if I were about to be executed and were given a choice of my last meal, it would be bacon and eggs. There are few sights that appeal to me more than the streaks of lean and fat in a good side of bacon, or the lovely round of pinkish meat framed in delicate white fat that is Canadian bacon. Nothing is quite as intoxicating as the smell of bacon frying in the morning, save perhaps the smell of coffee brewing.— James Beard (1903-1985)